Spring Rain

Today I was overtaken by an urge to walk in the backyard. I wanted to feel the ground under my bare feet and I did. It was marvelous. I walked slowly with no intention but to feel the dampened cool earth and the soft spring grass on my winter-kept toes. It was accomplished. Then I came back into the house and the hardwood floor was disappointing. Even the freshly vaccumed carpet left something to be desired.

There are storms here now and I am tempted to step out and let my God drip rain from His heavens upon my face.

Reformed Women of History 03

Back to Basics

I have now decided that to give you all that I have learned about the lovely Elizabeth Prentiss would keep young mothers away from their children and the rest of you from the important things that God has prepared for you to accomplish. Therefore this is a "short" bio given in three parts to satisfy the knowledge-hungry beast inside you. I will try to incorporate more about this truly excellent woman of faith in later posts, but for now; Enjoy!

Elizabeth Prentiss (Childhood)

On the 26th day of October in the 1818th year of our Lord the family of Edward and Anne Payson was blessed with the birth of their fifth child (there would be eight born, of which two died in infancy). Dr. Payson would prove to be a great proclaimist of the gospel in his time and even now his sermons are highly esteemed among Reformed Pastors and Theologians even today. The future husband of his newborn daughter would pen these words about him shortly after her death.

"Edward Payson was in all respects a highly-gifted man. His genius was as marked
as his piety. There is a charm about his name and the story of his life, that is
not likely soon to pass away"

Payson's great devotion, passion for winning souls to Christ and desire to become like his Saviour in holiness was a challenge to all that knew him. He did however struggle with a melancholy temperament was often subject to "sudden and sharp alterations of feeling." Almost to his last days he experienced seasons of spiritual gloom and depression. His familial biographer goes on to say that "it did not impair the strength and beauty of his Christian manhood." but rather placed a spotlight on his sportive humor, ready wit, and wonderful story-telling gift which made him delightful to the young and old, learned and unlearned alike.

"Dr. Payson possessed rare conversational powers and loved to wield them in the
service of his Master."

Much of his temperament was exhibited by his daughter Elizabeth as a young adult and was heightened at times by her not knowing "what it was to feel well." She was plagued by severe pains, sick headaches, and fainting spells from young childhood. She was described as "a dark-eyed, delicate little creature, of sylph-like form." Elizabeth was only nine when the father she adored departed to be with the Lord.

Elizabeth's eldest sister Louisa had recently opened a school and Mrs. Payson found it both a place of refuge and usefulness. She became a teacher in the school and after some years of further education Elizabeth would join the ranks herself. Louisa was known for her scholarship and excellent literary skills, something that would also be instilled in her younger sister. She would later marry a university professor and put her skills to the help of his position.

__________________________________________________________

These are somethings that I have learned about young Elizabeth Prentiss. She was greatly influenced by her loving and godly family to pursue excellence in her endeavors and did so in every aspect of life. The next E.P. post will focus on her young adulthood, including her own reformation by the work of Christ and her marriage to Pastor George Prentiss, brother of her good friend Ms. Anne Prentiss.

Happy Day!!

Spring Is Here!

It's not the 21st of March

And officially no one has said it yet but 'tis true.

I smelled spring in the warm, wet rain yesterday.

A smell which I've missed this winter.

A Side Note

I haven't walked away from our Reformed Women.

Okay, I am working on a short bio for Mrs. Elizabeth Prentiss. However "short" is the problem. I thought I wouldn't find very much on this lovely lady but was proven wrong and am now reading the collection of her "Life and Letters." So fun with letters for NL White.

The Side Note It's Self:

I am a co-teacher with a lovely and angelic friend on Sunday nights when we teach 5-7 year-olds. This week she was trying to convey God's omniscience to the kids when she shared the story of Ananias and his wife Sapphira, and their heart toward God revealed through their deceit. In considering the story with the children I was struck by how easy could be for us to pretend that we have hearts of gold when they're just painted rocks beating in our chests.

So the challenge I walked away with is to be real. I know that God has made changes to my heart now I must live like it. Some of you are like "you already do" well imagine if I did it on purpose. I would be a walking ball of mercy stitched together with thread of grace. My lack of tolerance for "faking it" would keep it from being an act and I would really be just that. Cool! Right?

Are you a walking ball of mercy stitched together with thread of grace?

Happy Day!!

NL White

P.S. I think that's what I want on my tombstone.

Reformed Women of History 02

Monica of Hippo

(Augustine's Mother)

I wanted to go back a little further for this one and short of going to Acts or the Gospels I think this is as far back as it gets. You are welcome of course to make a comment and prove me wrong. I haven't read very much on early church history (my bad) but am willing to learn.

Okay, So why Monica of Hippo?

Well, to be honest this is meant to be a learning experience for myself. Don't get me wrong I love having lovely people like you along for the ride but I have always been very selfish with this blog and don't intend to change that now. I use it as a journal, a release, a place to "flesh out" ideas and principles for living, express the things that God is teaching me as I consider His works, words, and ways. So, I invite you to suck up what you can and leave the rest for me and my distractable self. Happy reading. I hope you learn something you didn't know about Monica or her more famous son.

I confess that the only thing I knew about Monica of Hippo is that her son was greatly influenced by her faithfulness to follow Christ and spoke of that in his writings. So here's some of what I've learned these past couple of days.

Monica was born in 332 AD just when it was becoming okay to be a Christian all over the Roman Empire. This was made more acceptable by the Edict of Milan announced by Emperor Constantine I in 313 AD which removed penalties for professing Christianity (under which many had been martyred in previous persecutions of Christians) and proclaimed religious toleration in the Roman Empire. Constantine's lengthy rule, conversion, and patronage of the Church redefined the status of Christianity in the empire. But you can read more about him later. I brought that up so you might understand a little about the environment she grew up in. Her parents were Christians and most likely knew other believers who were heavily persecuted and even martyred for the faith. There were probably stories shared among family friends around the dinner table about "So & So" who were burned or hunted by lions as prey. It very possibly could have been like the eye-witnesses to Foxe's Book of Martyrs coming round to dinner to discuss the writings of the apostles. Cool Right?

Okay, so it's not really clear where she was born but most sources agree that it was probably in the northern regions of Africa, based on the location of her marriage and some other stuff. She was born to Christian parents who were of Berber descent (pagan) so they most likely were converts themselves. When Monica was about twenty-two she was married to an older man named Patricius. Patricius was a city magistrate and was known as a generous man at times however he was not a believer and often gave himself over to violence and adultery. To make home-life even more challenging Monica's pagan mother-in-law lived with the newlyweds.

Instead of giving into sadness or bitterness, Monica took this as a faith-growing opportunity. She was proved in time to be "chaste and respectful" in her behavior. Eventually her "gentle and quiet spirit" won over the character of her verbally abusive mother-in-law and though she herself never made a profession of faith, she began to respect her new daughter-in-law. She is said to have counseled her peers in similar marital situations with the words "If you can master your tongue, not only do you run less risk of being beaten, but perhaps you may even, one day, make your husband better."

After nearly twenty years of marriage to an abusive and adulterous husband Monica saw fruit of her careful labors. Patricius became a Christian just a few months before his death in 371 AD. The rejoicing over this great victory of the Lord would be immeasurable to any loving wife. The only grief left for our lovely Monica was the waywardness of her seventeen-year-old son Augustine.

Although Monica strived, as with all three of her children, to compel her son to follow in the teachings of Christ. He had rejected the faith which she held so dear and chosen to place his hope in the philosophy of men and the highest education of the times. Which we know from Romans chapter 1 to be vanity. Among other worldly teachings Augustine at that time began to follow the teachings of Manichaeism (there are two forces, Light and Darkness, one good and one evil, both equal in power. You know, Star Wars Theology). After some years, Monica consulted with a church leader concerning her son and was given advice to continue in prayer for her son for "It is impossible that the son of so many tears should perish."

At the age of Thirty-two Augustine had become a popular professor in the city of Milan and yet continued to experience personal turmoil. His curiosity in the charismatic preaching style of Ambrose of Milan led him to sit under his teaching for some time. Slowly his mind began to change through an understanding of the Gospels but he "wanted to be as certain of these things as [he] was that seven plus three equals ten." The conversion of the heart was yet to come. After an emotional wrestling within his sin he opened a book containing the letters of Paul and read "Do this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep; for now salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. The night is almost gone, and the day is near Therefore let us lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave properly as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts." (Romans 13:11-14)

Okay, I said I was distractable. I can't believe you let me get so far off track. Let's get back to Monica. So, shortly after the death of her husband, Monica went to live with her son in Milan, along with his mistress and their son, Adeodatus. Surely her constant example of faith was a source of conviction for her son and his family. About fifteen years after the death of her husband saw the change she longed for in her son. His conversion was indeed a process as He tried to reason it all out and finally yielded to the power of the Spirit. Can you imagine the joy of his mother, the quiet smiles as he read the gospels in the corner of the room, trying to grasp their meaning, the warmth of prayer for her son as he sat beside her during sermons she knew must lead him to the cross. Wow! Take comfort mothers of wayward children. God is at work, for He alone can accomplish what is needed.

Finally her beloved son, Augustine "received grace" and professed saving faith in the work of Christ on his behalf. (a little dance of rejoicing, maybe the running man) After a year of concerted study and prayer under the guise of Ambrose along-side his mother, son and close friends, Augustine was baptised as a believer on the eve of Resurrection Sunday 387 AD along with his son, Adeodatus.

About six months later, Monica prepared to follow her son and grandson back to her homeland in northern Africa (modern-day Algeria). While waiting in the port-city of Ostia she sat alone with her son discussing "what the eternal life of the saints could be like" when both were overwhelmed with peace and Monica turned to her son and said "My son, as to me, I no longer find any pleasure in this life. What more I have to do here, and why I am still here I do not know...Put this body anywhere. Do not let it disturb you." Within five days our dear Monica was ill with fever. On the 13th of November 387 AD Monica died of fever - malaria was common in the area at the time.

Augustine wrote of his mother's funeral. "It was not fitting that her funeral should be conducted with moaning and weeping, for such is normal when death is seen as only misery or as the complete end of existence. But she had not died in misery, and death was not her end...Of the one fact we were certain by reason of her character, of the other by our faith."

What can I (we) learn form Monica of Hippo?

I think that her value to us is found in her gentle and submissive way of leading those she loved to the truth. Both of her men (husband and son) looked to the world for something to fill their God-shaped hole and found nothing that fit. Yet when they observed this woman in her contentedness they saw that her hole was complete. Although, she couldn't have been silent in her faith because both men knew what filled that hole and must have heard it from her lips as well as felt it in her love for them. I'll quote a little James Taylor then the infinitely more authoritative Word of God.

"Shower the people you love with love" - JT

1 Peter 3

1In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives,
2as they observe your chaste and respectful behavior.
3Your adornment must not be merely external--braiding the hair, and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses;
4but let it be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God.
5For in this way in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, being submissive to their own husbands;
6just as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord, and you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear.

Reformed Women of History 01

Did you know that March is Women's History Month?

Yeah, I didn't either until I read it on someone elses blog. So, what is one to do with this information? I thought it would be a good opportunity to read up on some of the women of the faith and who better to begin with than the wife of Martin Luther? He's a little fresh on the mind because some friends shared a portion of the 2003 production entitled "Luther" with me this last weekend. So I read a bit about her online today and thought I'd share some of it with you, whoever "you" may be. ;>)

So here's the lo-down.

Katharina (Katherine) Luther was born to a family of nobles who lost their fortune over the years because let's face it old money is just old and life takes just as much old money to live on as the new stuff and well, it ran out. The name pasted on young Katie when she was born was Katharina von Bora. Her father (Hans) and mother (Anna) had other children but we don't really know how many. So here is little Katie with her siblings growing up in some ancient family house in Germany and when she is five, you know playing dress-up and learning through observation just what it takes to care for a house, her mother dies and everything changes, as would happen in any five year old girl's life. Soon after the event, her father remarried and sent little Katie off to school and just a few years later to a convent where she would learn the religious life which at that time was, for women, found in a convent because, shall I remind you, the Reformation hadn't occurred yet. So her aunt Magadalene ("Lena") was there to teach her what every little nun should know and there she was to take it all in and on October 8, 1515, at the age of sixteen, she took her vows as a nun. (A big commitment for a sixteen year old but hey, they all matured faster back then right,? No TV to suck up their intelligence.)

Okay so Katie the nun is reading, writing, learning some Latin when this whole Reformation thing is being strongly held not so very far away in Wittenberg, Germany under the leadership of none other than Martin Luther, himself. So, like a true woman she talks these things over with her friends in the convent and some of them decide that "Hey, we're trapped in this place under the unbiblical rule of some tax-collector in Rome and they'll kill us if we leave." So they penned a letter to Luther for help in their escape. The gracious and understanding ex-priest arranged for the ladies to escape in the covered fish cart of a merchant in his flock who regularly delivered his catch to the convent on the day before Easter, 1523. Eventually all the other Dames that escaped with Katie married and began family life with men from Luther's congregation but Katie's standards were high and after a few suitors she told a friend that she would only consider marriage to him (Nikolaus von Amsdorf) or their common friend, Dr. Luther himself. Well, we know how that turned out. Martin and Katie married on June 13, 1525 and held a public ceremony on the 27th of that same month.

Katie, then twenty-six, became a very busy woman. Luther always had students in their home and many of them stayed a while before moving on to other quarters. So you've got college guys in and out of the house, visitors to her famous husband, and eventually six children of their own. Busy woman! And what a household to manage! The son of the nobleman who protected Luther throughout his confrontive years with the Catholic Church, Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, had given "The Black Cloister", a former Augustinian monastery in Wittenberg, to the Luthers as a wedding gift. So when the flu happen to sweep the area, guess who's house served as hospital.

After twenty-one years of ministering along-side her husband, the famed Pastor and Professor of Wittenberg died and Katie was asked to move to more manageable quarters with the children who were still living at home. She refused at first but soon war drove many of the area's people to other lands. She returned home only to be driven away twice more because of war and plague. It was during this last fleeing that her cart was in a accident near the city gates of Torgau where she died on December 20, 1552, three months later from serious injuries related to the accident. She was laid to rest there at Saint Mary's Church, far from Wittenberg. But burial plots weren't on her mind when the time came to depart. She is reported to have said on her deathbed, "I will stick to Christ as a burr to cloth."

The four children of the Luthers who survived to adulthood became movers and shakers in the world as well. Hans became a court advisor, Martin Jr. studied theology, Paul (through whom the male Luther line continued until 1759) became a medical doctor, Margareta married a wealthy nobleman and their descendants can be traced to present day (including the 2nd president of Germany and Counts and Princes of Eulenburg)

Martin Luther was of course the more fore-front character in their family but it is said that Katie had wit and personality of her own. Really, can you imagine a soft-spoken, un-intelligent wife for Martin Luther who stood before men who by all conventional rights of the time could have killed him and said "Unless I shall be convinced by the testimonies of the Scriptures or by clear reason ... I neither can nor will make any retraction, since it is neither safe nor honourable to act against conscience."

We again don't know much about her character or marriage to Luther but there are hints of his affection among his letters to friends and his sermons. He fondly called her "my lord Katie" and stated in a letter "Catharina, my dear rib ... is, thanks to God..." We can know that she is the woman intended for a great man by and infinitely greater God. She was his match and equal in all things, just as God seen fit to provide.

A picture from the movie mentioned above but the ages would have been further than is represented here. She was twenty-six while Martin Luther was forty-two at the time.

"It's the process, not the product."

Did you know that I like to draw?
The only thing better than starting a new drawing is finishing one. However I must admit that I have much more experience with the former rather than the latter. I could post pictures of all the little projects that I have begun but not even "blogger" has enough space to hold all that digital information. The other day I was going through a portfolio of mine from high school. The amount of unfinished projects was a little disturbing.

In thinking about how unfaithful I have been to these undertakings I was reminded that God is continually faithful. I posted this picture on my flickr page a couple of days ago with this title "His work was finished on the cross. Mine has just begun." It is just as He said "It is finished." Even when we are faithless He is faithful. Faithful to complete the work which He began in me, in my brethren, in those who don't know they're being worked on yet. He is Faithful.

The title of this post is something that those of us who work with children say a lot. "It's the process, not the product." You know I do believe that when it comes to macaroni art and learning to dress yourself. When it comes to the daily sanctifying work of God in His children I would like to alter it a little. "It's the process, because of the product."

Scripture says that "When we see [Jesus] we will be like Him." As we await that day we can take comfort in the fact that it is sure, not based on the deeds which we have done even in righteousness but according to His mercy. Because He is faithful and able to complete His work, we can take comfort in whatever it is He has prepared beforehand for us to do.

Can I use these points to get out of finishing those works in my portfolio that remain merely started? No, but I can put them aside for more precious and lasting work.

On to that which will last.

NL White